It is well known that restraint devices may be utilized to prevent or retard displacement of objects. When the object to be restrained is quite heavy, as in the case of the batteries for electrically driven vehicles such as electrically driven lift trucks, it is highly desirable due to the size and weight of the batteries that, in the event that the vehicle is tipped under disadvantageous working conditions or brought to a sudden stop, the battery be restrained and held upon the vehicle frame so that it does not lift therefrom. At the same time, it is desirable that convenient access to the battery be available for service or replacement thereof.
In electrically driven vehicles the batteries are usually supported upon a vehicle frame from which walls rise upwardly from the frame to define a battery well. Such vehicles are frequently manufactured as a family of vehicles where the primary difference between members of the family is that of battery voltage. As the battery voltage capacity increase, so also does the battery size increase. The members of the family of vehicles thus have usually been manufactured with frames of different lengths to accommodate the differently sized batteries supported thereon, and with walls defining the battery well of different spaced apart distance.
Prior battery restraining devices have been adapted to accommodate the particular sized battery to be used in the vehicles, as for example adapted to the frame length and/or the distance between the battery well walls, and such prior battery restraining devices have not been interchangeable from one battery size to another unless the battery to be exchanged is of a size only slightly different from the previous battery.
It would be highly desirable to provide a battery restraining apparatus which could be used with any member of a family of vehicles despite the variation in frame sizes. Such a restraining apparatus, by being common to the vehicle family, would reduce the cost and the amount of storage space needed for stocking.
Additionally, it is possible to expand the vehicle frame of various vehicles, for example as disclosed in pending U.S. application Ser. No. 909,414, of common assignment hereto. It is desirable that a battery restraint apparatus used in conjunction with vehicles including an expandable frame be sufficiently versatile to accommodate frame length variations and yet still provide positive battery restraint during the course of vehicle working conditions.